New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) One can safely say that Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are in the same boat, as far as IPL 2025 points table and playoffs scenarios are concerned. KKR, the defending champions, are at seventh place with six points, while RR, the inaugural edition winners, are a position below them with four points.
With the race of making it to the playoffs intensifying, both teams have an uphill task at their hands. Anil Kumble, the legendary India leg-spinner who captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL, believes RR, who are on a four-match losing streak, are feeling the heat of missing Sanju Samson – first due to finger injury and now side strain, as well as realising the impact of not retaining Jos Buttler.
“I felt that both games that RR lost (to Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants), they had it in hand, which (means) they shouldn’t have lost those games. I mean, it happens in the T20 format. Missing Sanju Samson is a big thing. He’s a key player for Rajasthan Royals. So, that’s a big miss from your batting order.
“Yashasvi batting well is certainly a good thing for them. But again, Jos Butler is someone who sort of was the key player for Rajasthan Royals for a while. He was instrumental in single-handedly doing damage to the opposition. So, we have seen that with GT.
“I was a bit surprised that RR didn’t retain him. However, with the team that they have, they should have won both the games. It happens, and it’s happened to many teams. You sort of lose from a winning position. I’m sure that’s something that they’ll have to assess,” said Kumble, a JioStar expert, to IANS in a virtual interaction, on the sidelines of “Revenge Week” taking place in the tournament.
With RR set to face RCB at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, Kumble hopes the side has found enough time to rectify their issue of not closing chases. “Otherwise, they have the team. It’s not that they don’t have the team to beat any side in this competition.
“It’s just a matter of understanding that you don’t leave the charge right till the end. Some teams can win from those situations. But when you’re not doing it, you might as well think that you only have 19 overs to chase down rather than 20. That may sort of help Rajasthan.”
On the other hand, KKR have lost five of their eight matches and Kumble stated the lack of starts from openers has made life tougher for middle order. So far, KKR tried three pairs, but none of them have produced a 50-run opening stand. Moreover, big-hitting Andre Russell hasn’t been at his best – 55 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 119.56.
“Coming to KKR, I felt that they haven’t really utilized their resources. I mean, if you look at last year’s campaign, it was mostly around the starts that they used to get with Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. That’s not happening this season with their opening batters, and that certainly (has) started putting pressure on their middle order.
“I felt the utilization of Andre Russell hasn’t been really great from a KKR standpoint. I think Russell should bat higher. He should certainly get more opportunities. Just look at the one that they lost to Punjab. 60/2, I think in the dugout, ideally at that point, you’d say, okay, Andre Russell, you go and just finish this game early. If you get out first ball, doesn’t matter, we still have batting in hand. But that didn’t happen.
“By the time Russell came, he had to bat with the bowlers, and not even a regular batter because everybody else went ahead of him. Even in the last game, by the time Russell came, I think the match was over – 17 and a half, 18 runs and over. It may happen once in 10 games or once in 20 games. It can’t happen every time. So that’s something that I think KKR need to figure out,” he elaborated.
However, Kumble is confident of KKR performing well in the upcoming matches. At the same time, he cautioned both KKR and RR will have a hard time in reaching the playoffs if they don’t get favourable results.
“They have the bowling lineup. I mean, they have two world-class spinners in their lineup. The two fast bowlers, have been bowling really well, Harshit Rana and Vaibhav. So they have the team. Jinx (captain Ajinkya Rahane) is batting really well at the top of the order. Venkatesh Iyer hasn’t really performed, but I think KKR has it in them.
“It’s just a matter of maybe the time that they have now, these 4-5 days. I know they had time after the Punjab loss a couple of days ago. They lost a game which they should have perhaps won against GT or at least done better.
“So I think both these teams, if they have any chance of making it to the playoffs, they’ll have to turn it around in the next game – RR against RCB and KKR against Punjab. Otherwise, it’s going to be very difficult for them to qualify,” he concluded.
IPL 2025 “Revenge Week” runs from April 20-27, live and exclusive on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.
–IANS
nr/
